广告英语的语言特点及翻译策略(3)
Health, Hum or and Happiness.
Gifts we'd love to give.
Rhyming is correspondence of terminal sounds of words. For example:
Pepsi- Cola hits the spot,
Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot,
Twice as much for a nickel, too,
Pepsi- Cola is the drink for you.
3.2. Lexical Features
The English language is known for its extensive vocabulary. Where many other languages have only one or two words which carry a particular meaning, English may have five or six. Moreover, the meanings of these five or six words may differ very slightly and in a very subtle way. When reporting, marketing and advertising news items, the emotive power of the words used must be taken into consideration
Few verbs are used in advertising English, and the most used 20 verbs in English advertising may be : make, get, give, have, see, buy, come, go, know, keep, look, need, love, use, feel, like, choose, take, start, and taste. For example:
Make life a little sweeter.
We can give you a better view of investment opportunities from both sides of the Pacific.
In some advertisements, the advertising copywriter deliberately misspells some words, adds some suffix or prefix to the common words. Although the new words still have the original meanings, they are quite different from the original words in spelling, which will make the advertisement more vivid, interesting and attractive. For example:
We know eggsactly How to sell eggs.
In this advertisement, “eggsactly” is the variation of "exactly", and echo the word “eggs” at the end of the sentence.
Compounds are widely used in advertisements because it is more humorous, varied, and original, and thus impressing people much. For instance:
Do you know when you can save 35％or even 60％on out-of-state Phone calls?— An advertisement for long-distance call.
Pronouns of the first and second person: we, I and you out number the other pronouns in advertisements. It is because that you, we and I help create a friend- like intimate atmosphere. Advertisements that go like talking with friends closely link the advertisement and the customers. The customers will easily accept a product, a service or an idea as if a good friend recommended them. For example:
What can we do for you?
..., we help our neighbors find the best ways to give to their favorite.
In order to make advertisement a beautiful image in consumers’ heart, commendatory adjectives are frequently used in advertising English. The high-frequency adjectives are: new, clean, good/better/best, great, bright, fresh, delicious, reactive, perfect and so on. For example:
What’s on the Best-seller list? –In IBM Personal Computer Software--an ad for IBM.
3.3. Rhetorical Features
It is to make the advertisement more striking and effective, for they have the power to vivify and illustrate. A fresh, apt rhetorical device appeals to the imagination, creates mental pictures and makes the speech or writing vivid, impressive and interesting. For this reason, advertisers often use various rhetorical devices to increase the readability and appeal of an advertisement and to arouse consumers’ interest of buying the product.
Pun is rhetorical method which is the most widely used in advertisements. Pun refers to use some words of particular sounds and meanings to make some sentences in the context with a particular surface but having double meanings. This can not only make the advertisements attract consumers’ attention, but also can make the advertising language be concise and funny. In a word, this can play a role to achieve an excellent effect in expression. For example：
There is an ads: ‘The offspring of Spring’ (皮瑞尔矿泉水广告). The word spring has the meaning about the season, hence there is a pun meaning which can create good artistic conception. And offspring means “generations”. The sentence can be translated as “tenderness ChunQuan” because it can remind human beings of the mineral water’s pure quality with rich feeling about spring.
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